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Spartacus
1960
SPARTACUS, based on Howard Fast's popular novel, is Stanley Kubrick's glorious masterpiece about a slave uprising in Rome in 70 BC. Kirk Douglas, who also served as executive producer, stars as the title character, a man born of a slave woman and a slave master who has known nothing but chains for his entire life. After being .. Read more
| Starring | Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov |
|---|---|
| Director | Stanley Kubrick |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
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Spartacus
SPARTACUS, based on Howard Fast's popular novel, is Stanley Kubrick's glorious masterpiece about a slave uprising in Rome in 70 BC. Kirk Douglas, who also served as executive producer, stars as the title character, a man born of a slave woman and a slave master who has known nothing but chains for his entire life. After being forced to put on a gladiator show--that almost leads to his death--for wealthy Romans (including a marvellously conniving Laurence Olivier as the power-hungry Crassus), Spartacus leads a slave revolt across Italy that soon has thousands marching on Rome. Meanwhile, he has fallen in love with the beautiful Varinia (an effervescent Jean Simmons), pledging his life to her.
Douglas assembled a fabulous all-star cast for the film; in addition to himself, Simmons, and Olivier, terrific performances are turned in by Charles Laughton as the curmudgeonly senator Gracchus, John Gavin (PSYCHO) as the young Julius Caesar, Tony Curtis as Antoninus (a singer of songs, with all lines delivered in a beautifully thick New York accent), and especially Peter Ustinov, an Oscar winner for his portrayal of the businessman Batiatus, who always wants to know what's in it for him. Blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo's melodramatic script and Alex North's thrilling, soaring score add a majesty that helps make SPARTACUS one of the finest costume epics to ever come out of Hollywood.
| Starring | Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis, Charles Laughton, John Gavin, Nina Foch |
|---|---|
| Director | Stanley Kubrick |
| Studio | SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 3 hrs 6 mins HD DVD: 3 hrs 6 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
| Language | DVD: English HD DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Subtitles | DVD: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 27 Nov 2000 HD DVD: 05 Nov 2007 Production year: 1960 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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The restored version of this Roman epic about the famous slave revolt has additional blood, more lingering death agonies of Kirk Douglas on the cross and a risible bath scene with Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis, which was originally cut because of its alleged homosexual innuendo. Despite the film's length and overemphasis in the latter half on wordy speeches from Douglas (the film's executive producer), the action leading up to the revolt of the gladiators is brilliantly re-created, with Peter Ustinov, Charles Laughton and Olivier (as the Romans) addictively greedy scene-stealers. The early sequences, set in the Libyan desert, were directed by Anthony Mann, who was fired by Douglas and replaced by the 31-year-old Stanley Kubrick. Sadly, Kubrick later disowned the picture because he regarded himself as a hired hand. For several years Spartacus held the record as the most expensive picture ever made in America; it also made history as one of two films which finally broke the Hollywood communist blacklist by giving Dalton Trumbo credit as the screenwriter.
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Long, well-made, downbeat epic with deeper than usual characterization and several bravura sequences.
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Most helpful member's review
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8 out of 9 people found this review helpful
A true classic
A great movie! Features a bravura performance by Kirk Douglas as the eponymous leader of a slave revolt on Imperial Rome that came close to toppling Rome and destroyed several legions along the way. Great support comes from lover Jean Simmons, nemesis Laurence Olivier, hero worshipping Tony Curtis, senator Charles Laughton and slave trader Peter Ustinov (even better than Oliver Reed!).
If you are not a fan of Kubrick, don't be put off. This is the least Kubrick film of his work. And Dalton Trumbo (blacklisted screenwriter) came up with a cracking script.
Gladiator couldn't have been made without it.
Oh, and I'm Sparticus and so's my wife! -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
The classic tale of rebellion against hopeles odds. The slave Spartacus was selected for Galdiator training but he was a surly sort, unwilling to become a plaything for the jaded Romans.
<p>When his captors force him to separate from the woman he has fallen for, Sprtacus reckons that it's time he got his own back and soon he finds himself the leader of an army that threatened the security of Rome itself. There are some nice roles here, especially Peter Ustinov as a Slave Trader always looking for the main chance. Kirk Douglas makes a good Spartacus too, especially as the leader of men. Tony Curtis is rather amusing as the poet/singer with a pure Bronx accent [another in the Sean Connery School of Accents :-)]. -
News and features
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Red Cliff
- 15 Jun 2009
A mere slip of an epic at 146 minutes (you think I’m kidding, but I watched the original two-part, five-hour Asian-market version), John Woo’s first Chinese film in nearly two decades is both a triumphant homecoming and too much of a good thing. When Woo went to Hollywood in the run up to the handover of Hong Kong in the early 90s he was riding the crest of a wave: hyper romantic urban thrillers like The Killers, A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled had earned him a reputation as the... Read more
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Spartacus - HD DVD Version
SPARTACUS, based on Howard Fast's popular novel, is Stanley Kubrick's glorious masterpiece about a slave uprising in Rome in 70 BC. Kirk Douglas, who also served as executive producer, stars as the title character, a man born of a slave woman and a slave master who has known nothing but chains for ...
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Spartacus
SPARTACUS, based on Howard Fast's popular novel, is Stanley Kubrick's glorious masterpiece about a slave uprising in Rome in 70 BC. Kirk Douglas, who also served as executive producer, stars as the title character, a man born of a slave woman and a slave master who has known nothing but chains for ...
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